Matthew 2

I was have always been aware of, being guided by a star, the visit of the wise men supposedly to Bethlehem, to a home (not inn or stable) of Joseph and Mary to worship the Savior doe -

"...when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh." (New Testament | Matthew 2:11)

From Matthew's testimony, there is no question that months, if not years had passed from the birth of the Savior by virtue of the timing of the wicked edict of Herod the Great. But I had trouble with the chronology of things as Luke also testified -

"...when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth." (New Testament | Luke 2:39)

Bruce R. McConkie provided the following chronology that better helped me understand -

"Although the chronological order of the travels and sojournings of our Lord's early years is not entirely clear, the following seems reasonably certain:

(1) At the time of their espousement and marriage, Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth in the eastern part of the province of Galilee. (Luke 1:26-35; 1 Ne. 11:13.)

(2) Guided by divine providence, they traveled to Bethlehem, the city of David, where Jesus was born in a stable. (Luke 2:1-7.)

(3) On the eighth day, while the couple was still in Bethlehem, Jesus was circumcised. (Luke 2:21.)

(4) Following the days of Mary's purification, a forty-day period (Lev. 12), the holy family traveled to Jerusalem where Jesus was presented in the temple, with Simeon and Anna then bearing record of his divine Sonship. (Luke 2:22-38.)

(5) Thus, having "performed all things according to the law of the Lord," they then went immediately to Nazareth. (Luke 2:39.) Obviously the wise men had not yet come to worship their King, because following their visit comes the flight of Egypt. That they could not have gone to Egypt and returned to Bethlehem within the forty-day period is clear (a) because they were in Egypt at the time of Herod's death which did not occur until about two years after the nativity, and (b) because they returned from Egypt to Nazareth, not Bethlehem.

(6) Next, for some unknown and unrecorded reason, Joseph and Mary and the child returned to Bethlehem, obtained a house there, and were part of the community life when the wise men came. (Matt. 2:1-12.)

(7) Warned of God, the holy family now fled to Egypt for a sojourn of unknown length, possibly one of only a few weeks or months. (Matt. 2:13-15.)

(8) After Herod's death they returned with obvious purpose of settling again in Bethlehem, where they must have had an adequate place to live. But fearing Archelaus, son of Herod, they forsook the Judean province for the greater security of the Galilean. Hence their return to and abode in Nazareth. (Matt. 2:19-23.)

(9) From then until his formal ministry began, a period of perhaps twenty-seven or twenty-eight years, our Lord continued to live in Nazareth. (Luke 2:51-52; I.V. Matt. 3:22-26.) (DNTC 1:108-9.)